Is POP too far???

[3girlswdwdreams]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS, tahoma, arial, helvetica]Hey everyone...

I have a question for those who are familiar with POP.. i was just looking over a resort map and also reading some bus transit info..
It looks SO far away from everything.. 25 min bus to Magic Kingdom... we have 3 very young children and that is probably where we will spend more time than any other park...I hate to waste so much time on a bus.. and it also seems like such a large resort that I wonder if we will get stuck in a far away room walking forever every day for a bus.

would it be wise to choose another value resort or upgrade to a moderate?? (Dh and I have stayed at AS sports and AS movies.. but was back in 98 and 99/00.. so I was hoping for something different)

Money is an issue.. we couldn't go higher than moderate and even that I would want to know that it's going to be MUCH more convienent for us to stay there to justify spending the extra $300 - $400 over a value resort.
Any moderate reccommendations for family convenience?? (size, bus times, etc)

Any guidance would be appreciated!!!
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[ErickainPA]

There are no seatbelts on the buses. You just have to grab a seat for your little ones to sit, as there are no special seats. I held our 7 month old on my lap while on the buses.

 

[DSNYKID]

At $82 per night that is about $50 less than the renting the points option. We stayed at Carribean Beach in 01 and thought the bus service at Pop was better. As much as you will actually use the room the extra money isnt worth it, spend it on a character meal.

When we rented points, it was $490.00 for 5 NIGHTS! That is about $98.00 per night... taxes included.

 

[Mikester71]

Pop does have it's drawbacks though. One thing to watch out for is the parking. There is no good place to park. Even if the resort were empty and you were the only one staying there ... you will have to park a good football field away from the room. The other thing is the food court. It's buzzing. ALWAYS. So if you think getting there an hour earlier will help ... it won't. It's always crazy and you are elbow to elbow at the drink stations. snip

I think that all depends. On our stay there last month, it literally took me 20-30 seconds to get from my room to my van. As packed as it was (Canadian Spring Break - REALLY packed), I still saw plenty of other parking spots just as close to our room too (we were in the 90's building - ground level mind you).

As for the food court, we didn't really eat breakfast there (we ate in our rooms), but we usually arrived back at the POP for dinner around 4pm from whatever park we were at that day and would head down there with our refillable mugs and it wasn't TOO crowded at that time. It would start to get busy by the time we were done (usually 1/2 hour or so), but it still wasn't as busy as say 10pm or so when most people would be arriving back from the parks for the night and it seemed like they all headed to the cafeteria to eat. We just liked eating earlier so that we could walk it off when we headed back to the parks for the night. That was just my own personal experience, so of course it would vary according to when and what times you visit (remember, we were there during Canadian Spring Break which is 2nd full week in March and one of Disney's busiest weeks). We plan on going back to POP in March 2009 too, we love it so much!!!:sohappy:

 

[Mikester71]

I have thought about renting a car.. but we have 3 little ones, so it would mean renting a van or SUV that would fit 3 car seats.. so don't think it will be that cheap to do... and to be honest I think the girls are going to love riding the bus and I could totally see them complaining... why are we in a car.. what couldn't WE ride the bus like everyone else?? ROFL

We drive down, so have our van right there with us and we still choose to take the buses. They add to the whole Disney experience. :sohappy: